Chaffee and Moffat in the buying and developing the Little Pittsburg Mine in Leadville. The Little Pittsburg produced vast quantities of silver and started the silver boom in Leadville. Smith was placed in charge of the mine. Additional stock in the mine was sold. But the ore suddenly petered out, and the stock price collapsed. Investors later learned that Chaffee, Moffat and the other initial owners had sold out early, reaping large profits. Accusations that the initial investors had received insider information about the mine's status were never proved. Despite Moffat's warnings, Smith did not sell his stock in the Little Pittsburg Mine. He lost virtually his entire fortune. In 1882, Moffat and Chaffee secured a controlling interest in the Tam O'Shanter group of mines in Pitkin County, which Smith operated and managed for a year. The group of mines did not turn out favorably, so Smith then went to Red Cliff, Colorado, and mined there for a few months. He returned to Leadville and took charge of Moffat's and Chaffee's interests in the Maid of Erin, Henrietta and Louisville mines. He operated those mines for 10 years, rebuilding his fortune and eventually purchasing a financial interest in all of them. 1891 saw the first of hundreds of gold and silver strikes in the Cripple Creek region of Colorado. Smith quickly became invested in a number of mining operations there, including the Anaconda Mine and the Victor Gold Mining Company (later, after numerous mine consolidations, reincorporated as the Battle Mountain Consolidated Gold Mining Company). In 1892, the owners of the Portland Mine bought out Smith's interest in Battle Mountain as part of their successful attempt to consolidate gold mining on Battle Mountain. Smith used the money to buy an interest later that year in the Ibex Mining Company, the owner of the famous Little Jonny Mine in Leadville. (Among the owners of Ibex Mining was James Joseph Brown, husband of 'Unsinkable' Molly Brown.) In 1893, Smith moved back to Denver. Railroad building As growth continued in the Cripple Creek area, Smith, Moffat and two other investors began building the Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad (F&CC) in 1893. Moffat, president of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, saw the chance to expand his business as well as skim profits off the lucrative Cripple Creek mining operations. The owners decided to build a railroad from Florence to Cripple Creek to ship ore